Browning Boxing claims short but exciting five-bout bill

Published 5:30 am, Friday, August 18, 2006

It was fun while it lasted. It just didn't last long enough for fans who paid up to $50 for a ringside seat to Browning Boxing's first fight card in nearly a year and a half.

More than 1,100 fans crowded into the Sam Houston Ballroom at the Crown Plaza Hotel for a short but exciting five-bout bill.

After an extended period of family illnesses and other conflicting business interests, Jim Browning and his wife, Jennifer, unquestionably one of the area's most talented promotion teams, returned to the Houston scene Thursday night with several quality names, including such up-and-coming fighters as heavyweight David "El Niño" Rodriguez, junior middleweight Chase Shields, and featherweight Eleazar Rentaria.

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In the six-round main event, Rodriguez, a 247-pound heavyweight, continued his quest for a national and world ranking with a second-round TKO of John "Iron Man" Turlington of Fort Sill, Okla.

This was the second meeting between the two, the first taking place in April 2005 in front of Rodriguez's friends and family in his hometown of El Paso. Rodriguez claimed a four-round unanimous decision over Turlington, who is still the only opponent to go the distance with "El Niño," who now has 22 knockouts in his 23 victories.

Rodriguez hurt Turlington with a hard left early in the fight, but the "Iron Man" made it through the round, only to be floored three times in the second, at which point referee Barry Yates called a halt to the action. Turlington nodded in agreement with the decision.

"I thought I had to prove something to the only guy who has taken me the distance," Rodriguez said. "I felt a kind of pressure I had never felt before. It has always been easy for me before, but I knew that if I concentrated and stuck to my plan, I could handle him."

The victory improved Rodriguez's perfect record to 23-0-0, while Turlington fell to 5-10-1.

In a companion six-round feature, Houston favorite Chase Shields (20-0-1) was also looking forward to impressing the boxing powers, and he did it easily, claiming a third-round TKO over journeyman Thomas Grissom of Bastrop, La.

After sending Grissom to the canvas for an eight count in the first round, Shields kept using his jab to score points in the second. Then, after Grissom went down twice more in the third round, his corner called on referee Bobby Gonzalez to stop the fight at the 2:06 mark.

Heavyweight Brad Bowers of Clear Lake City evened his record at 5-5-0 with a TKO win over Donzell Atkins of West Monroe, La., who was appearing in his first professional bout.

After two rounds of what could only be called a brawl with almost no boxing thrown in, Yates called an end to the contest at 2:06 of the third. Atkins was unable to continue following an injury to his ankle after being repeatedly thrown to the canvas by Bowers, despite repeated warnings from Yates and a point deduction early in the final round.

By contrast, after four rounds of pure boxing, Houston welterweight Darryl Nolan raised his record to 3-1-0 with a split decision over Mikal Williams (5-17-4), also of West Monroe, La. While Nolan clearly controlled the fight, the judge's scorecards ran the full range in awarding the victory.

Using the Texas 10-point must system, two judges scored it 40-36 and 39-37, respectively, while the third judge saw it as a 38-38 draw.

In the opening match of the night, Rentaria (5-0-0, four KOs) spoiled the professional debut of Myriaun Clark. Yates stopped that contest at 1:08 of the second round.